Diverse Interviews on DACA - By: Sam Durhman & Megan Hall

By: Sam Durhman
Smd160@txstate.edu

By: Megan Hall
Mkh76@txstate.edu

Josue Blanco
Age: 20
Major: English
Class: Junior

Hometown: El Salvador, Mexico

1. What is DACA?
"DACA is a program that protects undocumented students that were brought into the United States when they were younger by their parents and it allows them to legally work in the United States and protect them from deportation it just in case they face that."

2. & 3. How/why do you feel about it?
"it's helped me a lot because it's giving me the opportunity to work both before coming to Texas State and while at Texas State. I work at the information desk in LBJ, I am part of bobcat preview and it also has helped me basically come to college because I am giving his Social Security which allows me to apply for financial aid in all that good stuff."

4. How have you been affected by it?
"It's help me work in the states, it helps me get it help me get a driver's license and also it helps me if I want to travel into states where they have checkpoints such as New Mexico and Arizona so if I were to travel there and we go through immigration checkpoint I'll be okay because I have the work permit card that DACA provides for me."

5. If you were in charge, how would you fix DACA?
"I would probably make it a more permanent thing. I have to renew mine every two years and it's $500 each to renew it every time and once it expires, my license also expires so I have to pay to renew the DACA and that's $500 plus application application fee which is $100 so it's about $600 every two years and then I have to take care of the of my driver's license as well."

Ariel Aguirre
Age: 18
Class: Sophomore
Major: Business administration

Hometown: Bogota, Colombia

1. What is DACA?
DACA is also known as the DREAM Act and its for kids that were brought into this country by their parents illegally but ended up growing up here and so now it's been trying to be revoked which would lead to deportation of kids that have basically only known America all their lives."

2. How do you feel about it?
"I feel like it's unfair just because the fact of because someone brings you here like they haven't known anything else their whole life and now someone saying this isn't like your home and so that just feels like an unfair call to make for someone."

3. Why?
"I would say it's personal just because yes I wasn't like born here but it like it's definitely would have known the most and like all my friends and relationships that are built here have been like I've just known here instead of not really Columbia or anywhere else."

4. Have you personally been affected by DACA?
"Personally no because we did do it with naturalization and citizenship but I have had like friends that they really don't know if tomorrow is going to be tough or if it's just going to be a normal day and I could see how that would be like very scary."

5. If you were in charge, how would you fix DACA?
"I would fix it in the way of not punishing people for like basically parents mistakes as far as like I feel like there's a lot of laws now that we don't blame the children for it we blame parents and that's what the backlash goes on so removing an act that would in the end not really punish immigration but more of kids that are already have lived here and had like successful lives so I would leave the DACA and find a way to focus more on illegal immigration and stop parents rather than hurting kids."

Ric Navarro
Age: 21
Class: Junior
Major: International Studies (Business Focus) & Spanish Double Major

Hometown: Cypress, Texas

1) DACA is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, commonly known as the Dreamer’s Act. It’s an act that was put in place to protect children or people who reside in the country illegally but were brought in by their parents when they were very young. Most of these children, or “Dreamers”, don’t know or remember life outside of the United States but are unfortunately not citizens or legal residents of the country. Therefore, this act is meant to protect these people who are American in basically every way except ‘legally’.

2) I am personally in support of DACA. I find that it doesn’t hurt anyone and is a great act only put in place to protect the interests of people living within our great melting pot of a country.

3) I feel this way because I am someone who feels strongly about social justice and/or inequality in our country. I can sympathize with these people because I know it must be hard to have lived somewhere nearly the majority of your life with the knowledge that your whole world can be ripped from you simply because of a decision that your parents made when you were a baby or very young. These young people are working, educated young people just like most of us, and I don’t find it right to label them as ‘illegal’ simply because they didn’t conventionally come to the country or weren’t born here. Their label of ‘illegal’ was due to a decision that was made by their parents while they couldn’t make decisions for themselves, and even then we shouldn’t demonize families for wishing for a better life within our country.

4) I have personally not been affected by DACA in any way as a citizen of the country, but I am a child of immigrants so I can understand what these people feel or are experiencing. I understand my privilege in my parents coming here legally and being citizens to the country and know that the process of migrating to the US completely legal can be very daunting and difficult. Ultimately, these families and parents just want a better life for their children and we shouldn’t criminalize these children for simply living their life.

5) If I were to have any power over DACA, I would simply fight to keep it in place. It protects and keeps educated children within our country and due to being under DACA, they are heavily regulated and looked over unlike many illegal immigrants/children who have the potential to perhaps not be ‘perfect’ Americans like these dreamers are expected to be. I find it to be a wonderful act and am happy for the opportunities it offers these dreamers.

Jerry Taylor
Age: 23
Class: Senior
Major: Exercise and Sports Science

Hometown: Austin, Texas

1. To protect immigrant children in the united states from the threat of deportation
2. I think it’s good because it gives a chance to receive an education
3. I think everyone deserves a chance at a better life
4. No
5. Program must be focused on education and be competitive to ensure success. Zero tolerance for crimes involving drugs and violence.